The field of the present disclosure relates generally to mapping non-validated data to validated data, and more particularly, linking non-validated merchant identifiers to validated merchant identifiers from authorization messages.
At least some known payment processing systems receive data from a plurality of data sources, such as merchants, banks, cardholders, and other parties associated with the payment processing system. Some of these data sources are considered validated data sources. That is, data from the validated data sources is considered to be accurate and is provided in a standard format. Other data sources are considered non-validated sources and provide a variety of information to the payment processing system. However, the data from the non-validated sources is not automatically considered to be accurate and may not necessarily be in the standard format. If the data is not in the standard format for the particular data or data field, the payment processing system may not be able to use the non-validated data.
In one example, when payment card transactions are initiated, one or more authorization messages are generated to request authorization for the transactions. The authorization messages include a plurality of data fields or parameters that provide information about an associated transaction. For example, the authorization messages may include information associated with the transaction, such as a transaction amount, a date and time, a primary account number (PAN), an acquirer identifier, a merchant identifier (e.g., name and/or address of the merchant), and a transaction currency code. The authorization messages are transmitted to a payment processor so that the authorization messages can be processed by an authorization system to either authorize or decline the transactions. The data included in the authorization messages are typically considered to be accurate information associated with the transactions (i.e., validated data) and therefore merchants and the like may use the authorization messages to analyze transaction data. In addition, the authorization messages may be used to inject information into the authorization system to influence an outcome of an authorization process (accept or decline).
Merchants may submit data such as a confidence score to influence the authorization process. The data from the merchants is typically considered to be non-validated data that may be submitted in different formats. For example, the merchant may provide a merchant identifier for a transaction that does not exactly match the merchant identifier of an authorization message for the same transaction. In such cases, the authorization system may not include the merchant-submitted data with the authorization message during the authorization process.